"Pet Milk" by Stuart Dybeck

The vivid train scene in "Pet Milk" inspired my poem below. Too bad our train rides aren't as scenic. I wrote it in 7 stanzas containing 3 lines each---just in case it doesn't come out that way-- when I press the "publish post" button!)

Twin light beams approach from the unlit tunnels,
One horn blows long followed by four short ones.
The digital board tells us this is the eight-car train to SFO.

I listen to thirty-ton metallic gray boxes traveling atop rusty
Oiled tracks traveling at fifty miles per hour, then slow, then halt.
My girlfriend’s image is reflected on the windows of the automatic double-doors.

By now, I know what to look for, and she’s still beautiful to me.
Funny, how I have missed her though we have seen each other
Every day for the past year, after work---me in a suit, she in a skirt.

Just before this, we walked along Pier 39, along the water,
Clouds bright pink, against a dusty purple and gray sky.
Kate wanted oysters, but I refused, too sad to see her go, tonight.

My dreams of joining the Peace Corps, found me enlisted in the army;
My personal contribution to world peace, though I did not
Tell Kate---not wanting to worry her while away at Graduate school.

We reach the town of Colma, speeding by cemeteries.
I cannot help but think about my deceased grandma,
How she would drink instant coffee, with Pet Milk.

We make love anyway, on seaquist-colored chairs with matching carpets,
Not caring about the people on the other end of our three-ton metallic car,
The steady rocking of metal on rusted oiled tracks is invigorating.